James Kirkup is The Telegraph's Executive Editor (Politics). He was previously the Telegraph's Political Editor and has worked at Westminster since 2001.

David Cameron wants more women at the top of politics. He should look at the Commons nursery

David Cameron says that the Government, the Conservatives, big companies and lots of other large organisations should have more women at a senior level. He says that the answer is not just conventional equal opportunities but a more active effort to encourage and facilitate women getting on.

As an example, he cites his own party, where barely 50 of 300-odd Tory MPs are female. The Commons remains overwhelmingly male too: ony 146 out of 646 members are women.

In recent years, the Commons itself has tried to do its part on this particular agenda, setting up a brand spanking new nursery. This, it was thought, would encourage women to become MPs, because they would have on-site childcare.

(If only because it's getting late here in Mumbai, I'm going to leave aside, for now, the inarguable point that childcare isn't just a female issue; last time I looked, men had responsibility for their kids too. But something tells me this will come up again at Westminster next week. More of this then.)

You've probably heard about the nursury. You've probably heard that it cost several million quid but has barely any children. (It has capacity for 40 kids, but last year it averaged barely 15 a day), You've probably even been cross about that.

And you'd be right to be cross, but possibly not for the reason you think.

One of the things that makes Parliament family-unfriendly is the hours. Even when they're not voting until 10pm (admittedly a less frequent thing these days) members are often doing something official until at least dinner time and beyond. Yet the nursery, supported with considerable amounts of your money, closes its doors at 6pm.

So, a nursery meant to make it easier for parents to work in a place that keeps late hours actually closes early. Result: taxpayers fund an under-used facility and parents of young children still find Parliament unwelcoming. If the PM is serious about getting more women to Westminster, he might consider how Westminster itself might change.